East Mullan Road Levee Eroding Putting Infrastructure at Risk

Flood response officials are focusing their attention on a levee in the East Mullan Road area that is reportedly being eroded by the flooding of the Clark Fork River, possibly putting infrastructure in the area at risk.

Public Information Officer Mel Holtz said the tip was called in by a concerned citizen.

“We had a 9-1-1 call come into the center,” said Holtz. “Somebody living on East Mullan Road noticed part of one of the old levees out there being eroded away.. We did send responders out there from the sheriff’s office and the incident management team to look, and there had been some significant amount of erosion in a short amount of time.”

Holtz said at that point the Army Corps of Engineers was called in.

“The Army Corps of Engineers was called in and they deemed there were some repairs that needed to be made,” he said. “There is a lot of infrastructure in that area. It is close to the interstate and we also have utility lines and some gas lines buried in that area, as well as some Bonneville Power transmission lines, as well. They’re continuing to look at that tonight and will come up with a game plan to start work tomorrow to get that repaired.”

Holtz said the levee will need to be shored up.

“They’re the experts on this and I’m not quite sure exactly what their plan is,” he said. “They’re working closely with the Office of Emergency Management as well as the Incident Management Team to come up with a plan to make sure it doesn’t become a big issue.”

Holtz said the weakened levee is near the interstate, the railroad tracks and utility lines, in addition to some homes in the area, but he said the major threat, should that levee give way, would be Interstate 90.